


The Old Guard, and subverting expectations

by Solovei



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Meta, Nonfiction, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Spoilers for the movie I guess, Tropes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 05:02:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28522857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solovei/pseuds/Solovei
Summary: Some thoughts on "Enough of this shit".Originally posted to Tumblr on August 1, 2020
Comments: 1
Kudos: 24





	The Old Guard, and subverting expectations

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote a fairly rambly bit of meta a few days after seeing the movie and it kind of took off? I figured I should upload it here too since this is usually where I post stuff.  
> If you really do want to read it on tumblr, you can find it here:https://solosvejs.tumblr.com/post/625310725669371904/the-old-guard-and-subverting-expectations, though with a couple more errors because I did not proof this before hitting Post and now it has 2000+ notes and it seems weird to edit it.

I remember when I first watched this movie - I didn’t know much about it. I had seen the trailer about a month prior, was immediately on board to add this to my collection of Movies Where Charlize Theron Beats Up Dudes. Like, I was sold just on that.

And then, you know, there was that shot of Nicky and Joe spooning on the train from Sudan. And I thought… _Huh. You don’t see that every day._

I kept watching. I remember asking some fandom friend or other if the movie was gay. (I expected, like, _maybe_ some subtext between Charlize’s character and the new girl, but that was the height of my expectations going in). They said it was.

I got to the Van Scene. _Ah yes_ , I thought, _these are The Gays of the film._ (I did not know yet at that point that everyone in this movie is gay)

And then… And then I got to the scene in the lab (the That Time in Malta scene), and something…. something twinged inside me. Because I had seen enough movies now to know that if people are in dire circumstances, and they mention some happy prior event, AND there’s some form of “that was nice, wasn’t it?” or “we should go back there”, there’s…. well, it’s usually a good sign that the character(s) will NOT get to do that thing again or go back to that place. There’s almost always a finality to it. A sense of regret. I heard that in Nicky’s voice, and I heard it in Joe’s reply.

And I thought, _well_. They gave us these gays, at least; so maybe they won’t make it out of this movie alive, but at least it was nice while it lasted. It’s not the first time that has happened and sadly it will not be the last. You see, I’m a fic writer. I am well-versed in the language of “that didn’t happen” and “Alternate Universe - Everybody Lives” tags. I am fully prepared at any given moment to ignore every part of canon I do not, as the kids say, vibe with.

They almost had me in that scene where Nicky gets shot in the head, I had to admit. It happened fast enough and brutally enough that I got flashbacks to Star Trek Discovery’s similarly-framed killing of their lauded gay character. I think I literally yelled NO!!!! at my TV.

There’s about 35 seconds of Nile-Booker-Andy badassery between Nicky getting shot and his gasping, breathless, bloody return. They’re a good 35 seconds. Andy gets a fireman axe and goes to town. On my first watch, I couldn’t really enjoy them, because I was kind of…. riding out the disappointment. I thought, well. At least Andy will be okay, right? She’s the main character, right?

But, you know. When she grabs that axe and she says “enough of this shit” and starts cutting down dudes, I thought…what if she’s not talking about their current situation? What if it’s addressing _the narrative_ and the place the viewer is at that moment - a viewer who has probably seen other movies where the queer couple is given some cute screen time, maybe they teach the protagonist or the audience about love and tolerance, and then they are killed off for cheap angst. That viewer is probably expecting that same thing, not hopefully but with cynicism. _Here we go again,_ the viewer sighs

But then…

Enough of this shit, says Andromache the Scythian… and Nicky wakes up.

And they get their revenge on Keane, they get to come away from this together, with their found family, reaffirmed in their love and their place in the world.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about viewer expectations and whether creators should or shouldn’t try to subvert them. Usually it’s been used when writers are afraid someone has figured out their plot, and have to scramble to try and change it up in service of some “zomg twist ending!!!”.

But I think The Old Guard did something different. Like Andy, we had grown cynical and weary, tired from years and years of being promised “representation” that ultimately leads to disappointment. Enough of movies where queer characters are dangled around in press hype as “representation” only to be done away with to show how “dark and gritty” the world is.

Enough of that shit. _ **We lived, bitch.**_


End file.
